Metal Gear Liquid: The Dual Liquids
by Truec
Summary: After Shadow Moses, Liquid Snake survived through his arm. What if there were other ways he survived? Two Liquids, with different agendas. And Solid Snake nowhere to be found, lucky him.
1. A Clone of a Clone of a Legend

_December, 2004, Outer Heaven_

_Liquid Snake looked into the tank of fluid, at the young boy contained within. Many years ago, he had been that boy. He had had no idea of just who he was. Now he knew. Maybe, had he known earlier, things would have been different. But with the path events took, his current course of action was all there was. He would live, having seized the glory of surpassing Big Boss and destroying the Patriots, or he would die trying. That was just the way it was going to be._

_"And if I die," he whispered to the tank, "then you shall succeed me. You will succeed if I fail."_

_With those words, Liquid turned to a technician studying a sheaf of readouts._

_"Doctor, how long will it take for it to mature to my specifications?"_

_The man placed his papers on a nearby desk before turning back to Liquid._

_"The clone is aging at as quickly a rate as we could safely set. At this rate of 1 year every 4 weeks, he will reach the age you specified in just slightly less than a year. I recommend that you save the transfer of your memories and brainwaves for as long as is possible for your plan, sir, to reduce the risk of degradation and to insure that the memories are as recent as possible." Liquid smiled in response. This fell in line with his upcoming plans perfectly. _

They had told me from the beginning that this plan had a high risk of failure. I didn't understand some of the reasons they gave due to my lack of knowledge concerning genetics. An annoying fact that I had centralised all of my learning to subjects that I had believed would assist me in defeating Big Boss, and his death, his killer and my brother, Solid Snake. Now the main element of one of my foremost reserve plans revolved entirely around subjects that I barely understood. I didn't like not understanding my own plans. I still don't. Life can be ironic that way, but I didn't see the irony then. I saw only that even if I failed, I could still succeed.

I hate irony so much right now. Almost as much as I hate genetics.


	2. Liquid Snake is Dead

I woke, finding myself in some sort of liquid. I was in… the clone chamber... yes, I remembered the chamber, and the events that had led me to it. Had it happened? Had it worked? Did I die, only to cheat death?

Through the water and glass, I could see two figures. One of them was working the controls on the outside of the chamber. At his commands, the water began to drain, allowing me to place my feet on the floor.

I quickly removed the oxygen mask I was wearing, running my hands over my face as I did so. Flexible skin, with no stubble or other signs of age. It would seem my new body had not had time to age as far as I would have preferred. I slowly flexed muscles, feeling their response, sluggish at first, but quickly returning an acceptable level of movement.

With the fluid drained, I could now see the figures outside of the chamber. Psycho Mantis, the telepath, was standing at the controls, while the giant shaman Vulcan Raven stood back with what looked to be one of my uniforms draped over his arm. Mantis pressed a button, opening the chamber and allowing me to exit.

"Liquid," he began, his voice somehow different than I remembered it for some reason, less flat perhaps, more emotional. Slight emotion, but there. "Welcome back to Zanzibar Land. As you may be able to tell by the fact that you have been awakened here, we failed in our attempts to hold the Metal Gear. Wolf and Octopus are dead, and Ocelot has betrayed us. This, if you stop to think about it, was bound to happen. I told you he's a Patriot spy, but did you listen to me? Of course not."

I frowned as I took the clothes offered to me by Raven. "Mantis, shut up." Wolf and Octopus had been good friends, and more importantly, good soldiers, and would be difficult to replace, now that I would no longer have access to Foxhound recruits. Moreover, Ocelot had been one of my closest advisors, having served under Big Boss, he was well versed in the strategies I had needed to plan the assault on Shadow Moses. I knew he worked for the Patriots, and where better to keep a spy than in a position where you have reason to watch his every movement? I turned to regard Mantis.

His appearance had not changed, except for the addition of several new scars along his arms, and likely several more under his uniform. Many of them looked like gunshots that he had barely avoided. Raven too had several new scars added to his fearsome visage. From the looks of them, he had been caught in an explosion. Maybe several explosions. I finished dressing and finally spoke up.

" Tell me everything gentlemen. I want the full details of what happened at Shadow Moses."

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Damn. I hate it when a good plan goes wrong, and this one went worse than I ever could have imagined. FOX-DIE… who could have imagined? A virus that can kill anyone by singling out his or her DNA… I know nothing about genetics, but even to me, that sounded kind of fucked up.

Well, the plan was history. Luckily, I had a backup plan. That was why I had had myself cloned using the new technology in the first place. It was still experimental, but it wasn't hurting me any to let them extract some blood and tissue samples and use those to form a literal test tube baby clone of me. They used a combination of radiation and certain chemicals to accelerate the clones aging. This body was supposed to be aged to 25 years, giving me time to get it into shape as I reached my physical prime once again. Instead, it appeared I was now thirteen or fourteen years old. Another annoyance in a long string of annoyances.

The plan. I remembered it well, as it was the whole reason for cloning myself. If I died while attempting to seize a Metal Gear to take my revenge upon the Patriots, Solid Snake, and the spirit of Big Boss, then my clone, this current form of myself, would… wait for an appropriate moment and point in time to do the same exact damn thing? What was I thinking when I came up with that. It had seemed like sound reason at the time, but then, the original plan seemed great too.

But they were useless now, both plans. And now… I had a new goal. The true path to surpassing Big Boss had occurred to me while I stood naked and dripping in front of that tank. I just had to make sure Raven and Mantis were in for the long haul with me, and maybe build up a new team. During my time in Britain and the Middle East, I had met a good many soldiers, and formed many contacts. Perhaps it was time to call up some of them… and tell them that I was a clone of their old associate Liquid Snake, except my aging process got screwed up and I was only thirteen? Yeah, that'll work real well Liquid. After that, how about you walk to Alaska, walk up to Solid Snake's cabin, and kick him in the balls?

Okay, that would be fun, actually, but I had more important concerns.

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"Gentlemen, our path is decided," I told Mantis and Raven that afternoon. "Or at least my path. I won't force you to remain alongside me. You have both worked well, both for Foxhound and for me, and if you choose to leave now, I would understand."

The two looked thoughtful for a moment, then looked at one another and nodded. Raven spoke up first. "Liquid, really, where else in the world are an eight-foot Inuit and a relatively insane telepath going to find work anywhere near as good as this?"

"Yeah. Working for you isn't always fun, or easy, but it's always interesting," Mantis continued. "If I have to work as a terrorist, and I see no reason to change occupations now, than I might as well work for Liquid Snake."

It was touching, their loyalty. I knew I could trust them, that was why I had confided in them before things went wrong. It was sad about Octopus, he was the only other one who had known. "Thank you Raven, Mantis. But Liquid Snake is dead, I'm not him anymore. From now on, I'm Liquid Boss, the Boss who will surpass even Big Boss."

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The man struggled within himself, his face showing only brief glimpses of the mental fight for survival. Two minds, both struggling for control, neither giving way, neither being able to give up. To give up was to die, and neither mind was a man who could just quietly give up and die. The struggles had been growing in intensity for months, ever since the one presence had first made itself known. It was only the ghost of a mind already tainted by madness, a ghost created by memories contained within nanomachines, but it fought, and the original mind fought back.

Slowly, the struggle ended. The man had fallen to his knees, and quickly stood up. He new who he was now, and his purpose. He had a new name, fitting his new mind perfectly.

"I...I see it now! We two dead men alone can do little, but together we shall shake the patriots to the core! Revolver Ocelot, a withered old warrior who has lost his edge after years of combat, and Liquid Snake, defective and dead...both are gone now, but I remain. I am Liquelot!"

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You gotta love a chapter full of backstory. I'll try and keep a certain level of humour going, it wouldn't be Metal Gear if we had completely unrelieved drama constantly.

Feel free to point out any errors, spelling, plot, game-related, or anything else. If I don't specifically say there's a reason for it, assume there isn't.

Thanks go to Kirinkov, my technical advisor, who knows more about this series than any man has a right to. I suppose I should also thank the Metal Gear Solid 2: SoL board at GameFAQs, it was some people's use of the moniker Liquelot that gave me the idea of my Liquelot.

In the next chapter:

Solid Snake has disappeared after, apparently, blowing up an oil tanker near New York. President George Sears, who Liquid once noticed looks a hell of a lot like Big Boss, has disappeared shortly after resigning. They say he moved into seclusion, but Liquid isn't buying that. Neither is Liquelot, and he knows that Sears is actually Solidus Snake


End file.
